Scrapyard Ship (12 page)

“Plimpton, isn’t it?” Jason asked. He remembered passing the chubby-faced Seaman Apprentice on his first day aboard. What do we have here?”

“Big spread tonight, sir, with all the fixins: Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, French green beans, hot biscuits, and peach cobbler for dessert.” Plimpton took the Captain’s plate. “Load it up, sir?”

“Oh yes, thank you. So who cooks all this? We have a chef onboard?”

“You’re looking at him, sir, although here on The Lilly there hasn’t been the opportunity to do much cooking, what with our easy access to food replicators and such.”

“Well, I think that’s certainly about to change,” Jason said, turning away with his tray of food and surveying the mess. He spotted Dira seated next to Mollie several tables over. Mollie seemed to be the center of attention and must have said something funny, because the five SEALs seated at the table were chortling. Jason recognized one of the guys, Lieutenant Morgan—something or other. He’d leaned over and whispered something in Dira’s ear. She smiled, turned, and whispered something back into his. Did she linger there a while?
Never really liked that guy much
, Jason thought to himself.

“Got room for one more?” Jason asked loudly, above the hall’s noisy chatter.

“Dad! Sit next to me,” Mollie screamed, her enthusiastic smile beamed up at him. Jason caught Dira’s eye and she smiled. An uncomfortable quiet came over the table while Jason buttered his biscuit and dug into his food.

“Quite a ship you have here, Lieutenant,” Morgan said, breaking the silence. “Something right out of Star Wars, or is that Star Trek?”

“My dad’s captain now, not lieutenant commander, see his collar?” Mollie interrupted, never to let the obvious go unnoticed. Jason knew that Morgan was perfectly aware of his new rank. Smiling, Jason nodded his head and took another heaping bite of pot roast.
This is just what we do
, Jason thought to himself. It wouldn’t be the navy without a little shit-slinging. He knew shit-slinging could go both ways, so he’d bide his time.

Dira collected her tray and got to her feet. “Well, I need to get back to Medical and relieve Ricket. We’ve started the HyperLearning process and all five of the MediPod’s are in use—including the one with your friend Billy,” Dira said, smiling at Jason and then at the others around the table. “…and Mollie, I’ll see you tomorrow.” The men all watched as she walked away, including Jason. Interesting how her spacer’s jumpsuit seemed to fit her perfectly, in all the right places. Dira took a quick glance back over her shoulder and smirked when she saw the multiple eyes checking out her backside. Out of his peripheral vision, Jason saw Mollie scowling at him, so he put his full attention back on his supper. Several more crewmen joined their table and then several more after that. Eventually, everyone in the mess hall turned around in their seats and had, in a sense, joined the captain’s table.

A seaman from across the room yelled over to Jason, “Hey Captain, what ever happened to that animal Billy snuck on board the Tripoli. What was that damn thing, a baboon?” The room erupted in laughter.

“It was a lemur, Wilkins. And if you also remember, Billy spent a night in the brig for that stunt. I think everyone on the Tripoli was bitten at least once. Had to be the meanest damn animal in the South Pacific,” Jason shouted back. Mollie smiled, enjoying being part of the good ol’ boys camaraderie.

Another sailor called out, “Hey, Captain, are we gonna offer up some
bad-ass
to those aliens up there? Maybe a little payback for what they’d done to our boys in California?”

The room went quiet; all heads turned towards Jason. He didn’t answer right away and when he did, he put his hands over his daughter’s ears. “Yeah, we’re going to fuck them up—we’re going to fuck them up in a bad way.” The mess hall erupted in a hail of hoots and hollers. They were a team again, and for the first time Jason felt good he was their captain.

* * *

Jason woke in the middle of the night to the sound of Mollie crying. Recently, she asked if she could leave her light on, something to do with nightmares. He got out of bed and made his way to her room and crouched down next to her bed.

“Hey there, sweetie, what’s going on?”

“I miss Mommy, I miss her so much. Why can’t we just go get her?” Mollie asked, her eyes red and full of tears.

“Soon. I promise, we’re going to do our very very very very very best, to get her back with us,” he replied, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Don’t try to make me laugh, Dad. This is serious.”

“I know it is, kiddo. I don’t like to see you hurting like this. Hey, want me to hang out here for a while? Maybe until you go back to sleep?” Mollie nodded, and let her eyes close. Jason gave her a hug and a kiss and scooted up on the bed next to her. He leaned back against the bulkhead and took a deep breath.

“Dad? Can I call her? Like on her phone?”

“No, I don’t think so, Sweetie.”

Before Jason drifted off to sleep he wondered if he would be able to keep his promise to get Nan back? Was she still alive? He’d done a good job not letting his mind go there—until this moment.

* * *

One more person had been asked to join the 0600 staff meeting, and in spite of looking less than 100%, Billy Hernandez was hanging in there. His attention was on Ricket, obviously not sure what to make of the small mechanical man. Ricket was in the middle of an explanation.

“…even if Nan had her cell phone on her person, obviously there are no cell tower services thousands of light years out in space. With that said, the Craing ship itself would have the capability to forward those signals—just as The Lilly can do. But this is all academic—unless we have supervisor-level access to an internal Craing network,” Ricket explained, seeming intrigued by the prospect.

“Well, it was just a thought—Mollie gave me the idea last night and I wanted to throw it out there—even if it is a bit far-fetched. Let’s move on. Billy, I know you’re not feeling all that great, but with your help, I’d like to work out a tactical strategy to board and take over the Craing ship. Think your guys will be up for that?”

“Yeah, we’ll be up for that, Captain. I’ll get some training maneuvers scheduled for tonight.” Billy smiled with his typical machismo-flair and a quick wink across to Orion.

Orion scowled at the militarily-lax gesture. “If we have some time, I’d like to test the rail guns today and some of the other weaponry that’s recently come online. I have ordinances available that I’m clueless about. There’s a solid rocky ridge a quarter mile long and eight hundred feet high several miles to the east. I want to put some holes in it,” Orion said, matter- of- factly, looking at Jason. It took a moment before the others around the table turned to look at Gunny; no one really sure if she was serious. Jason knew—she was.

“Scan for life signs. Make sure you don’t take out a weekend camper or a Boy Scout troop. But sure, have at it.”

* * *

On the bridge, Jason, Orion and Ricket prepared for weaponry and JIT ordinances tests.

“We’ll be testing multiple criteria today, including accuracy, reload rates, any overheating issues, explosive yields for various ordinances, and more. Of course, here at sea-level atmosphere, results may be significantly altered from the vacuum conditions of space. The AI knows to compensate for all measurement calculation variances.”

“Any significant difference between The Lilly’s rail guns and, say, those typically used on Alliance ships, or on Craing vessels?” Jason asked his gunnery sergeant.

Orion nodded, as if expecting the question. “The velocity of the projectile is dependent on two things: the length of the rails, and the power of the current being applied to the rails. The Alliance ships, and even the Craing for the most part, use longer rails. Not so with The Lilly; the rails are ridiculously stubby. I’m curious how enough velocity can be generated for the guns to be effective. I guess we’ll find out,” Orion said, with a shrug. Ricket had been walking back and forth to several different consoles. Every so often the bill of his baseball cap would rise up—pointing toward Orion or Jason—as he listened to what had caught his interest.

“We are ready,” Ricket announced, pulling himself up onto a nearby chair and entering something at the virtual terminal. The forward display changed orientation and increased the zoom level. The distant ridgeline now completely filled the display.

“Lilly, what’s the composition of the ridge being targeted?” Jason asked.

“Commonly known as granite. It consists of coarse grains of quartz of 10-50%, potassium feldspar, and sodium feldspar. These minerals make up more than 80% of the targeted rock ridgeline. Other common minerals present include muscovite and biotite,” the AI replied, in a flat tone.

“So, I’m correct when I say the target area is solid?” Jason reaffirmed.

“Yes, that is correct, sir.”

“And the thickness across the ridge?”

“Between five hundred and thirty, and six hundred and twenty-three feet at its widest,” the AI replied.

“That’s a mother big piece of rock,” Jason said under his breath. “I’m ready when you are, Gunny.”

“First, we’ll be testing the forward rail gun system utilizing a solid non-explosive ordinance with a fifteen-second burst. What is important to remember, Captain, is that we have no on-board stores for these ordinances. This is as much a test of the phase synthesizer’s JIT manufacturing capability as it is of the guns themselves.” Orion was at the weapons console and entered several commands. Small tracking cross hairs locked onto a specific rock outcropping on the display. Jason felt a slight vibration as the forward rail gun deployed on the lower hull of the ship.

“Charging rail guns,” Orion said, then looked over to the captain.

“Fire at will, Gunny.”

The gun fired in rapid succession—for fifteen seconds a blur of dark streaks shot off in the direction of the targeted rock area. When the dust settled, the face of the rock outcropping was gone, leaving a perfectly symmetrical opening several feet in diameter.

“Lilly, how deep was that penetration into the rock face?” Jason asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“One hundred sixteen feet with no discernable deviation, Captain,” the AI responded.

“And now, Captain, the same test with both forward and rear rail gun systems deployed,” the Gunny said, excitement creeping into her voice. Both guns fired in rapid succession—for fifteen seconds there was a blur of dark streaks in the directed targeted rock area. There was considerably less dust and the face of the rock outcropping was virtually unchanged.

“Lilly, how deep was that second penetration into the rock face?” Jason questioned, his brow furrowed.

“Three hundred-eight feet with no discernable deviation, Captain,” the AI responded.

Jason looked over to Orion. “How would these results compare to those of comparable Alliance weapons?”

Orion was shaking her head. “I’ve never seen anything like this, Captain. For such a short burst to inflict that much damage—it’s impressive to say the least. Lilly, using the current ordinances, how long can the rail gun systems sustain continual firing?”

“Rail gun systems will overheat with prolonged firing lasting in excess of thirty minutes before requiring a four minute cool-down period.”

“That’s also impressive, Captain,” Orion said. “A factor or two, or even three times better than anything we currently have in the Alliance arsenal. I’d like to try a few of the more exotic ordnances now. They’re listed on the selection menu, but I’m not real sure what they are. Do you have any idea, Ricket?”

Ricket shook his head. “Minimal descriptions are available—I might be able to access more over time.”

Orion selected a different set of ordinances from the display menu. “Let’s try these,” she said, looking over at Jason for approval. “These are called PQR ordinances and I’ll bring the burst duration down to five seconds to be safe.” Jason sat back in his chair and waited for the next test to begin.

Both guns fired in rapid succession—almost immediately the ground started to shake. The five-second burst of bright white streaks shot off in the direction of the ridge. A large plume of dust filled the air and obscured the ridgeline from view.

“What the hell was that?” Jason asked, excitedly. As the dust started to settle, it became evident that a section hundreds of feet across had been completely and totally obliterated—leaving two separate ridgelines where there previously was one.

Ricket nodded his head in appreciation. “ I believe that PQR ordinance have anti-matter characteristics.”

“Sorry, Captain, I had no idea of the potential damage... we should probably hold off on any more testing until we’re in open space.” Orion looked down at her console, embarrassed.

“There’s so much we don’t know about this ship,” Jason said. “But I agree with your assessment.” He was hailed via his NanoCom. “Go for Captain, what can I do for you, Billy?” Jason asked aloud, holding two fingers to his ear. He had discovered that was the common crew practice when communicating.

“If you’re done blowing up mountains, we’d like to commence training maneuvers. We’ll be staging men and equipment external to the ship. From there conducting four-team raids into various access points.”

“Has everyone completed their HyperLearning?” Jason asked him.

“Yes, but with the exception of the new weapons and the ship’s advanced technologies this won’t be all that different from other raids we’ve conducted. We’ll need to ensure we have the element of surprise and the sooner we get started with these maneuvers, the better.”

“Understood, you better get cracking then, Lieutenant. Give me a progress report in four hours.”

“Aye, Captain, Billy out.”

“Contacts approaching from the east and south, sir,” Orion announced. “Looks like a squadron of F-18’s—Yeah, they are the same ones from Air Station Meridian. Orders sir?”

The display, still depicting the decimated ridgeline to the East, showed six of the jet fighters approaching at high velocity. “Try to contact…”